Species Iridopsis gemella - Hodges#6587

6587

Iridopsis gemella (Rindge, 1966)

Anacamptodes gemella Rindge, 1966 (1)

A. g. gemella Rindge, 1966 (Southern Texas)

A. g. tethe Rindge, 1966 (Mexico)

There are 21 species of the genus Iridopsis in America north of Mexico.

Rindge (1966) listed the forewing length of A. g. gemella. (1)

♂ 13-18 mm.

♀ 15-18 mm.

Rindge (1966) description of the adults including genitalia is in PDF. (1)

Southern Texas to Mexico. (2)

Holotype ♂ A. g. gemella from Mercedes, Hidalgo County, Texas, February 9, 1959, collector H. Schmalzried. (1)

Moth Photographers Group - large range map with collection dates.

Rindge (1966) stated the species probably flies year round. He collected specimens in every month except February. (1)

Larval host unknown. (1)

"... This species is very similar to defectaria, but it occurs to the south of that species. It does fly with perfectaria, and these two species also resemble each other in appearance. They are easy to separate on genitalic characters, however, as they are in different groups of the genus. With the males it is often possible to remove the scales from the top of the end of the last segment in order to examine the uncus, which will allow placement as to group, and thus separate perfectaria and gemella.

The genitalia of this species are quite similar to those of defectaria. The male structures in the present taxon can be recognized by the differences in the valves and by the dentate area of the aedeagus. The female genitalia can be determined from the fact that the sterigma has both anterior and posterior median indentations."(1)

Iridopsis defectaria is not found in southern and western Texas.

Iridopsis perfectaria is best separated by genitalia where range overlaps.

Rindge, F.H. 1966. A revision of the moth genus Anacamptodes (Lepidoptera, Geometridae). p. 224, fig. 9 (map). (1)

Moth Photographers Group (3)

Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) (4)